| “ | He picked 50 of the most violent cops on the force, gave them machine guns and permission to shoot anyone who got in their way. He called them the Gun Squad. No lawyers, no trials, no questions, no suspensions, no investigations, just piles of bodies. Bodies in the morgues, bodies in the hospitals, bodies by the side of the road, and not because the LAPD wanted to wipe out crime. No. The LAPD wanted to wipe out the competition. Mayor Cryer and half the force are on the take: gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, you name it. Because once you give people the freedom to do whatever they want, as the Lord found in the Garden of Eden, they will do exactly that. | „ |
| ~ Briegleb on Davis' corruption of the LAPD. |
Chief James Davis is the overarching antagonist of the 2008 film Changeling. He is a fictionalized version of real life former Los Angeles Police Department chief, who was the superior of Captain J.J. Jones and is the one behind the corruption of the station.
He was portrayed by Colm Feore, who also portrayed Laufey in Thor, The Dollmaker in Gotham, Randall Flynn in Revolution, Donald Menken in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Detective Frank McDuff in National Security, Rudolf Höss in Nuremberg, Jordan Hayes in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Giuliano della Rovere in The Borgias, Sir Reginald Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, Zhylaw in The Chronicles of Riddick, and André Linoge in Storm of a Century.
History[]
Chief Davis was known for making the LAPD deeply corrupt to the core, to the point that he hired the most violent cops and named them as the infamous "Gun Squad" to wipe out criminals without trials, lawyers, suspensions or investigations, also being in cahoots with Mayor Cryer to cover up their faults. Reverend Gustav Briegleb would always speak out against him and the rest of the LAPD on his radio show broadcasts, something that visibly dissatisfied him.
When Christine Collins' son, Walter, goes missing on March 10, 1928, she contacts the LADP to help find him. He case is taken over by Captain J.J. Jones, who informs the distressful mother that the boy has been found alive in DeKalb, Illinois. The next day, Jones arranges for a public meeting with Walter being brought over on a train, where Jones introduces Davis to Christine. However, when Christine looks at him, she realizes that the boy in question isn't her son. Despite continuing to insist otherwise, Jones suggests to Christine that she's only shocked because he's not the same Walter as she remembered and pressures her into taking the boy home on a "trial basis", clearly desperate for approval from the press and avoid previous backlash.
As Christine keeps complaining that "Walter" isn't her son and demands that the search be resumed, the LAPD paints her as an unfit mother as Briegleb informs Christine, that the cops would do anything in their power to discredit her while also discussing the department's corruption and Davis' major role in it. Christine's recent testimonies about the LAPD's incompetence become the final straw for Jones, who has her forcefully locked in a "psycophatic ward". However, six days later, she is released thanks to Briegleb showing the supervising doctor a newspaper article about the murders of 20 children at the Northcott ranch, with Walter being named a possible victim, after their remains were found by a kid named Sanford Clark, with the help of honest detective Lester Ybarra (despite Jones not believing him, dismissing this as a cover story of his entering California ilegally), the former of whom was the accomplice to deranged serial killer Gordon Stewart Northcott.
Later on, Chief Davis reprimands Captain Jones for mishandling Christine's case, as the LAPD is now faced with even more backlash than before, as well as for covering up the Wineville coop killings. Jones justifies his actions as right and remains unconvinced that Walter is among the other victims.
However, Davis makes it clear to Jones that both him and Mayor Cryer want this whole fiasco to go away, arguing that people will be asking why they haven't found Walter yet if he is still alive, but if he did really die at the hands of the killer, then the questions would cease to contiue, so Davis decides to put all the blame on Jones to avoid a lingering problem, but Mayor Cryer, who has been aware that prestigious lawyer S.S. Hahn has taken Christine's case pro-bono, is outraged that the issue hasn't been properly adrdessed and fears that the scandal might cost him the re-election and advises the chief to take Jones out of the picture for a while until the hearing is over. After a while, the fake Walter is identified by Chief Davis as Arthur Hutchinks and returned to his mother. He reveals that he traveled to California so he could meet his favorite actor Tom Mix and ask him to ride his horse, but claims that the police had forced him to pretend that he's Walter Collins, which Davis smugly denies to the press while laughing sarcastically and waving Arthur goodbye. Davis is seen attending the hearings while he, Christine, Jones and the other witnesses give their respective testimonies. As a result, Davis is demoted as LAPD chief. He takes his hat off and walks away in defeat.